Roof structures for buildings commonly include trusses that provide structural support for the roof deck. Such trusses typically include elongated top and bottom chords, and a plurality of elongated web members extending between and interconnecting the chords to form a rigid structure. A given building design may include a large number of trusses of various sizes and shapes as required to provide the desired roof size and shape for the building design as specified by the architect. Because the roof truss designs vary significantly, large-scale production of standardized roof trusses meeting all of the requirements for each unique building design is often not feasible.
One type of building truss includes a top chord made of an elongated steel member having a downwardly-opening U-shaped cross section, and a bottom chord having an upwardly-opening U-shaped elongated member. A plurality of tubular web members having a square cross-sectional shape extend in between and interconnect the top and bottom chords. The ends of the tubular web members are received between the side walls of the U-shaped top and bottom chords, and sheet metal screws or the like are driven through the side walls of the top and bottom chords and the side walls of the tubular web members to thereby interconnect the chords and webs at the joints. The loads on a particular joint may require that the joint be reinforced with a plate member. If the joint includes such a plate member, the threaded screws are generally driven through both the plate and the side walls of the chord and web.
Such trusses have been manually fabricated on a large work surface or the like. Typically, the chords and webs are manually positioned by a worker, and self-drilling and tapping sheet metal screws are driven into the joints by a worker utilizing a powered hand tool or the like. The manual labor required to assemble such roof trusses adds to the total cost of the roof truss.
Accordingly, a way to assemble roof trusses in a manner that alleviates the above-identified drawbacks of known assembly procedures would be beneficial.